Digital Marketing Insights: Can Google Get any Bigger People?

I just finished reading an article on DMnews.com announcing Google’s first quarter 2008 earnings and, once more, am incredulous over the growth this search engine monster continues to sustain. Google is the internet trend setter, the creator of webmaster standards, and the major search engine of choice for close to 60% of all online searches. They must be doing something right.

So all those website businesses out there that still think marketing for Google is just not important, or that investing in expert SEO to curry Google’s favor is just not worth the cost—take a good hard look at that “60% of all searches” figure, ask around to see how people shop for just about everything these days, and then check out these first quarter earnings for more evidence that Google is just not going away anytime soon!

Google’s First Quarter 2008 Earnings

On April 17th Google announced $5.19 billion in earnings for the first quarter of 2008. This translates to a 42% increase over the first quarter of 2007. That’s about $2.5 billion more than the same time last year and a 7% increase over last quarter. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, stated “We are obviously pleased with another strong quarter.” This small town Branford girl considers this the understatement of the year. Wow.

According to Schmidt, paid search revenues were far more lucrative than most third party sources predicted. Google’s total paid clicks rose 20% over first quarter 2007 figures and 4% over the previous quarter. Revenues through Google’s ad networks, mainly Adsense, saw a substantial 25% increase over first quarter 2007 earnings. Google-owned website revenue (the biggest money maker) increased a whopping 49% over the same timeframe last year. International revenues also saw a big climb with a 48% increase compared with the first quarter of 2007.

Employment went from 16,805 up to 19,156 just this quarter, with half of new employees coming from the recent purchase of Double Click. Google has announced they are selling the Double Click Performics group and that more staffing cuts are expected in this area. The company also just announced a new partnership between Google and Salesforce.com, a provider of on-demand CRM services, for Google to provide Salesforce for its Google Apps offerings.

Can You Afford to Ignore Google Anymore?

Every business operating on the internet needs to formulate a strategy for increasing their visibility in Google. With more and more consumers doing a substantial amount of their shopping and product research on this industry-dominating search engine, companies that want to beat out their competition, or at least get a good piece of the market share, cannot afford to ignore the reality of the times.

Yes, pay per click advertising with Google Adwords is a good starting place, but only 2-4% of all online searchers ever click on the paid ads. The vast majority, over 85% gravitate ONLY to the natural search engine listings on the left of the page. The only way to get to that coveted top 5 or 10 spot in the rankings for your most important search terms is with an ongoing plan of custom tailored search engine optimization and some time.

Find a reputable online marketing agency with experience, testimonials, web marketing case studies, and a commitment to the success of your business, and get to work making your website thrive in Google. It’s not always easy, it takes real work and real talent, but your hard-earned business is worth it.

To learn more about custom SEO and marketing that results in real online success, give Digital Surgeons a call at (203) 672-6201 or fill out our simple website contact form. We look forward to learning about your business.

*We all can’t be Google, but every business can achieve continuing growth and prosperity with the right partner working for them.*